From House to Home and Everything In Between

Saturday, March 31, 2012

About a week before we were supposed to close on our house we decided to take a Saturday drive over to the house. Our daughter had not been to see it in a while and it was very different, so we decided to go, even though we had decided to wait until our walk through in a few days. We walked into our beautiful house, looked around, gasped in amazement, and sighed with contentedness, etc. Then, while we were in the kitchen my daughter noticed wet spots on the floor. Then we noticed them dripping down from the outlet by the door. Running the whole way across the kitchen to the pantry. Our hardwoods were sitting with little puddles on them. Not good. Wait! It's still kind of drippy. (we shall deem this the mini flood) I don't know about everyone, but our PM is out of reach on weekends. He doesn't check voice mail, email, etc. I applaud that, because if he did his family would suffer for it.

I called the model home and talked to the sales rep, called the girl with the mortgage company to tell her we may need to change our closing, and we waited for our PM to arrive. He looked at it, found a leak in the plumbing where they had moved our bathtub fixtures, and assured us everything would be okay. We had a very frank discussion with him. We were confident, but I was also feeling kind of annoyed at something he said.

Back story: Our tub had been installed so that when we were sitting it in with the drain at our feet and the jet behind us the faucet would be right in our face. I brought this to his attention and was frankly surprised that he didn't seem to know what I was talking about right away. Then it took several days, and lots of anxiety on my part, to get the kind of response I was expecting right away. "We'll take care of it" was what I was expecting to hear. We also allowed for the tub to have holes patched where the faucet and handles had been rather than demanding a new tub. I know we could have, but to us it felt unnecessary. *I did feel, however, that we were really nice about it.

Fast forward again, to the day of the mini-flood. We were standing up in our master bath talking about what happened and how it would be taken care of and be a-okay. The PM explained that earlier in the process they had thought the water lines for the bathtub were missing, so they opened the drywall (which we had noticed and wondered about) and ran lines from where the sinks were to supply water to the tub. So the faucet had to be at the end because of jets and where everything else was situated. (After reading about how other people with Ravennas have had PMs put all the control access in the bathroom so they could have a full tile front to the tub I have to admit I felt more than a little cheated with my "Oops" tub situation.) When they went to change the faucet & handles they found that the lines which they originally thought were missing were indeed right where they were supposed to be.

At some point in the conversation he said that this is where "No good deed goes unpunished" comes in. And he was talking about his good deed of moving the faucet and handles! I can only imagine the look on my face when that happened. I thought we were the ones who did a good deed and took less than the brand new in perfect condition bathtub we paid for, but he saw it as a favor to us to move the stuff. Definitely different perceptions of the same thing.

The following Monday my cousin let me know there were a bunch of trucks at our house doing lots of work. We signed our papers with the mortgage people and moved into the house. Within a few days all the little loose ends were tied up and you would never know there had been any water problems. Thankfully, it was during construction, so it isn't considered something we had fixed. We are all living happily ever after.

If you are building and going through hairy situations in the process, I
would say it is to be expected. I would also say you should expect to
see things resolved to your satisfaction, however that is defined.

Totally unrelated item:

There are a couple other things which I specifically asked to be done a certain way during the sales process and were changed without prior notice. I'm trying to decide how to handle stuff like that now. For example: I asked to have an outlet put in the garage on the left side front. I planned to park on the right side with the big van. I also plan to park a small car on the left. So whatever I want to plug in would fit easily in front of the car. The van - not so. Guess where the two garage outlets are? One on the right front and right side towards the front. Am I too big of a pain if I ask to have it put where I originally contracted it? I really want it there, paid for it assuming it was going there, and now feel like I can't use my garage the way I planned. Parking the van on the right is far and away the most convenient option for us. We added extra parking pad on the left for the kids to park, and getting in & out is most definitely easiest on the right side. The sidewalk to the front door is also on the right side, so If we let people out of the van, again, it's the easiest.

Am I being way too "First world problem" or is it a totally reasonable request?

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Guess who just brought home two trees, six rose bushes and eight berry bushes, along with some sweet peas, bleeding hearts, and another flower I can't remember right now, and some bushes which attract butterflies? This kid! That's who!

I went to Aldi's, of all places. The trees, which are 10-12 feet tall already, were $14.99 each. I bought a red maple and a flowering pear tree. The berry bushes were $6.99 each and the rose bushes were $4.99 each! Great prices. Get thee to an Aldi's if you need stuff. Perfect timing to save me a ton of money! Hooray!

Oops... they weren't sweet peas, but lily of the valley. Brain overload!

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Here it is, the list you have been waiting for all your life. My list of foods you should never eat.

In no particular order, except they are in the order I thought of them today:

Sugar Free Popsicles. Instructions: Avoid these at all costs. Also avoid anyone who tries to get you to eat these. Once you eat one, you are now a SugarFree Cracksickle addict. Don't say I didn't warn you. I'm warning you.

Starburst Jellybeans. See instructions for #1. It's the same deal.

Asparagus. Because, really? No.

Eels (especially of the baby eel variety) Instructions: Beware the omelet.People will put these things in your perfectly good eggs!

Anything which was once in your nose. Please.Instructions: Even at traffic lights, you will find no delicacies in your nose. Trust me on this one.

Your own body parts. Instructions: Leave the skin on your lips, the nails on your fingers, etc. These are not tasty snack foods.

Anything your dog licked. Yes your dog is wonderful. Yes your dog is huggy. Yes your dog is super smart and loving. Instructions: If the dog licks it, it is now entirely belonging to the dog. Get your own.

Caramel apples without nuts. Instructions: All caramel apples should have nuts. Unless you are allergic to nuts. I'm not a monster.

Warm Mayonnaise. Instructions: Throw it away. Warm mayo will make you hate life. Danger Will Smith!

Brie fondue. Because there is not enough in the world. All your brie fondue are belong to ME!

Remember how I said If I was a high-falootin' fancy pants I would show you with an arrow which house is ours? Well, guess what? Steve &/or Ericka are high-falottin' fancy-pants! Because I just opened my email to this picture with an arrow pointing at my house. Are you jealous? Because for a mere $9.99 I think S&E would point an arrow at your house, too. S&E, if you get rich on this arrow thing I want ten percent, okay? Great!

Today I decided to drive to the street behind us and see our house from their view. I'm so glad I did.

If I was a high-falootin' fancy pants I would show you with an arrow which house is ours, but I am not so I will not. (Because I don't know how) But our is the one right in the middle with the greenish trees behind it. Aren't these some lucky bovines? They get to see the back of my house all day!

While I was back there I took a picture of this, because it was so doggone pretty:

As a bonus, while I was on the street everyone waved at me. Every. Single. Person. That's right!

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

When we were deciding what things to do while building our house one thing was sure: Oil rubbed bronze. Hardware, Plumbing, light fixtures - they all needed to be oil rubbed bronze. We have a lot of trash bins around but they are not oil rubbed bronze.

I wanted a small trash receptacle for the water closet in our master bath. The size they sell for bathrooms is a little overbearing in the small room. So I scanned the house for something small. I wanted it to have a lid. I found it! An empty Clorox wipes container! Bit it wasn't pretty. Do I really want my house to be decorated by Clorox? Not really. I went down to the basement, grabbed a can of oil rubbed bronze spray paint, and went outside.

In *less than five minutes, for less than five dollars I had the perfect little trash can from my bathroom.

Here it is, not taking up too much space. You can line it with a produce bag.

Sunday, March 25, 2012

I waited very patiently while our house was being built. I dreamed about moving in and getting settled. Changing our address with everyone and changing schools and getting rid of lots of stuff. Then getting rid of more stuff. Purge, purge, purge. But the thing I was dreaming about every day was opening up my two precious cans of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint. Oh yes! This was my dream! Finally, on Thursday, I dug right in. I was going to be home waiting for an afternoon delivery, so this was my chance! Of course, I started to paint the turntable before I remembered to take a picture. I found this puppy at Goodwill, and paid almost as much for it as the person who bought it brand new at Ikea. It was in sad, sad shape. Fine by me, I had plans for it anyway.

After a coat of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint: Louis Blue

Then I added the Soft Wax and Buffed until my arms turned to jello. Then I buffed twice more. Really, I need to get those big boys to do this. It's exhausting.

Meanwhile, this was going on upstairs: When I went to get my phone to take pictures the appliance delivery guys called and asked to deliver early. Sure thing!

And this was going on in the kitchen beside me. I had taken everything out of the old refrigerator, so it was all on the counters. Then they had to take the doors off both fridges to get them through the door. Whew! It was hot and they left the front door wide open the whole time. They were here for what felt like hours. Nice guys, but I was glad when they left and I could put the groceries away and do laundry!

Watching paint dry. No lie!

Since they were here, I decided to start this, too. This sat in my grandmother's dining room under her wall mounted phone for much of my life. Then She gave it to me. Then it was in her barn. Then I brought it back home. It held an old typewriter for a couple of years. It will probably reside in my front room/sitting room/parlor. (I'm not sure what to name this room.)

Friday, March 23, 2012

1. Get the old place totally emptied and cleaned up for the new life it is about to have.

2. Get the few remaining boxes in my bedroom put away.

3. Shop for the furniture we need and the appliances (fridge, washer
& dryer) which all decided to die within the two week period around
our move.

In all fairness to me, I had the boxes in my bedroom all put away, too. Then more boxes were brought from other places and put in my bedroom. There is really only one box left to deal with, and a tote to stash in my closet for the time being. I've fallen a bit behind on laundry, but the new washer/dryer were delivered today, so I hope to have it back under control by next week this time.

This month has been a blur. It has been super busy and I feel like I need to take a long rest.

This morning as I held up an item in my grandparents kitchen I explained to my grandad, as he was eating his Cheerios, that it would have undoubtedly cost thirty dollars at the shops. I told him they were sitting on a gold mine and if they sold some stuff they would certainly be very wealthy He was not impressed. I made my statement again, and emphasized to him that he could indeed be: Very. Wealthy. Instead he explained something to me.

He told me that some time ago my daughter #2, Allison, had asked him what he would wish for if he could have one wish. Now, my grandfather is a spirited man. He's full of mischief, truly. But he's also sort of a grown up. He lost two boys when they were teenagers in a car accident. He's the youngest of about eleventy siblings, who were all close, and quite a few of them have passed. Who could guess what his wish would be? He told me his answer to her was "I wouldn't wish for anything. I'm alive and I have a home and food to eat and a family who loves me very much" and, he said "I have my Lord. That's all I need."

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Today I went to Seville to check out Funky Junk Boutique. The ladies were as nice in person as they are on Facebook. They had some great stuff, and some fantastic ideas. I think I will be seeing a lot more of them. Today I picked up some brushes and a sample pot of a new (to me) Annie Sloan chalk paint color. Today I didn't take any pictures in their store. I just wanted to take it all in and enjoy it. Next time I will ask about it and see if it is okay to do. I stopped in a couple other neat places while I was downtown in Seville. It was good times.

After my trip to the thriving metropolis tiny downtown area I went on over to see my grandparents. How lucky am I? My grandmother was outside when I pulled into the drive. I greeted her
with a hug and kiss and told her I had just been to antique stores and
confirmed that her house is, indeed, a gold mine. She fed me ham and
bean soup with potatoes. The only thing that could make ham and bean soup better is potatoes. That woman is genius!

My mom was there, too. We went through the barn, looked at oddities in the hog house, and headed out back to one of the other buildings on the property. My grandparents recently got new windows upstairs and I asked them to save the old ones. I loaded up the van today and brought them home where I will use them in a decorating project soon.

I'm going back over in the morning. Let's see what we can get into, shall we?

(When choosing items never assume that my level 4 is the same as your level 4. The standard options in my house could be quite different than the standard options in your house)

Our kitchen faucet is the Moen Camerist in Chrome. (I have tactile issues and could not deal with a stainless faucet) I love that pull out sprayer!

Our kitchen granite is called by three different names: Brazil Black (this is what our division of Ryan calls it) Black Pearl, and Black Uba Tuba.

Our kitchen cabinets are Rushmore Maple Glaze Butterscotch. (knobs are included with this cabinet option) So are the bathroom cabinets. Realize if you take upgraded cabinets and counters in bathroom #2 you get it automatically in #3, etc. It made it really worth it to find out the the additional cost carried over to the third bath instead of being per bath.

We added a third lane to our driveway, since we have a house full of big kids.

Driveway update: Adding a third lane to the drive only added 10 feet wide by 20 feet long. When the concrete guys were here we added a couple more feet out to the side - another 2 x20. This felt necessary because the 10 feet of extra drive starts at the edge of the garage door, not the edge of the garage. It would be a real tight squeeze with a vehicle parked in that side of the garage and cars parked down that lane.

Monday, March 19, 2012

I went back to Bicksler Electric to look at appliances today. They are a locally owned shop downtown in our little town. It turns out that the Bicksler family lives in our development, fairly close to us. We can't see their house from ours, but we can see some of the same houses. Nice folks, really nice. And I found a better deal than I could find with my husband being an employee of a major appliance brand maker and also better than what I had found at the big stores. I might not always shop local, because in the end our family finances are priority. I always try to shop local, though.

I took the advice of the owner regarding which washer/dryer pair to buy. If I'm not happy I figure I can go use their washer.

I turned on the air conditioner on Weds or Thursday. The house isn't getting cool. At all. Its warmer than it was, as a matter of fact. The breaker for it is on, all three zones are set to cool. Any ideas? Any secret Ryan Homes info I should know about getting it to engage?

Friday, March 16, 2012

1. Get the old place totally emptied and cleaned up for the new life it is about to have.

2. Get the few remaining boxes in my bedroom put away.

3. Shop for the furniture we need and the appliances (fridge, washer
& dryer) which all decided to die within the two week period around
our move.

Number one is done.
Hooray! Number two was done, but now there is a new box of stuff sitting
in the bedroom. Number three... well, I've been
shopping in stores and researching my little heart out online, but I
have not made the purchases yet. I have a couple of weeks remaining, so
I have confidence I will be able to make the purchases before the end
of March.

As a bonus, and thanks to my mother, the
basement utility room is rearranged and a lot of progress has been
made. The shelving units did not get into the food storage area the way I
wanted originally. We moved all the stuff off of them and moved the
shelves, then restocked. I'm much happier with them now. Then my mom
decided to organize more of the utility room while I cleared more stuff
away from my dining room. We actually ate in the dining room instead of
the kitchen for the first time last night!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

I try to be a person with a grateful spirit. I try to be understanding when things go wrong. I'm usually the first one to say to someone in error "That's okay." I'm all about fixing rather than fighting. But sometimes, insult after insult gets added to injury after injury and I just get fed up.

Picture it, Sicily, December 13th, 2011. Okay, maybe that was a bit too much Sophia Petrillo, but everything but the Sicily part is correct. We went to Macaroni Grill with our family. It's been a go-to spot of ours, always. Our local MG had a fire and was finally restored. We went in with our usual party of eight, and our reservation. Which is really more like call-ahead seating, because there's no table ready for you at your reservation time. There is a promise of only 20 minutes wait. Whatever, we get that this is, after all, a chain restaurant. I had gone in prior to our dinner and bought gift certificates. They were running a promotion where you buy $25 and get a $5 bonus to use later.

They seated us at a table for six. The restaurant was half full. It was late. We had reservations for eight people.I requested they add another table. They said they could not. I felt under our table and it had extenders. This never sits well with me. I don't think asking to add a table in a half full restaurant so we aren't bumping elbows is asking too much. We are bringing you business. From people who order appetizers and entrees and salads and soups and desserts. We aren't sharing a sandwich and getting water. Don't treat us like we are an imposition.

We had our dinner. While I fail to recall all of the highlights, the gist of the dinner was:

Daughter #2 had chicken parmesean. It's what she almost always gets at MG. This time it was raw inside. Every piece. She sent it back. They offered to make it again and she declined. Her stomach was turned, and I don't blame her. She just sat there praying she didn't end up with food poisoning. Eventually they brought her out what they said was a new dinner to take home. The next day when she checked it guess what!? It was raw inside, too! Injury, meet insult. She did order a tiramisu, which was lovely.

When dessert time rolled around for the rest of us they told us they were out of tiramisu and other desserts, leaving us with slim pickings. When the manager, Dave, called us he had someone check and they had indeed not been out of tiramisu, they had just not wanted to do the work. His words, not mine. Why did he tell me this? Insult, you've met injury, right?

My #1 son ordered a steak well done. Whether you agree with people who do this or not, you must at least respect that they can't deal with a bloody hunk of meat. What he was served was a steak which was rare. Rare, people. Did he want them to cook it some more? No, his stomach was also turned. (These kids will eat about anything, and they aren't little kids - we're talking college aged people, here) We asked them to box up his steak. When we got outside we realized they had not given us the steak. My husband went back in and told them we wanted it. They took seven minutes to come back out with the box. (Isn't this more than a little unusual?) When we got home guess what was in the box? The cake crumbs from Son #3's cake. Hey Insult, you remember injury, right?

This isn't even all, this is just all I feel like going into right now. In the past I have written letters to RMG when we had an excellent server to let them know. I've written once when things didn't go quite right. This time things went WAY wrong. Out of eight people two of us had a good meal that night. Not satisfactory.

When it was time to pay I gave the server our $150 in gift cards and my Discover card to cover the rest. When she brought back the check she explained that since I had paid with gift cards and a credit card that her tip showing on the credit card slip was only based on the amount we were paying with the card and she loses a lot this way. She apologized for the need to tell me about this but said to me she just didn't want to "get screwed" (who talks like this? At work? To a customer? Who just had a lousy experience?) Really, I'm still shaking my head over this. I looked at both receipts and did the math. Her 18% went into the gift card part. So it didn't take $150 off our total. She was asking me to double tip her on $150 worth of food! And even tip her on her tip on the first $150. Incredible! Insult, and Injury sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

I went home and wrote a letter on their online 'Contact Us' page. I got a response the next day from the manager. He seemed genuinely unhappy with the way his staff performed about some things, but on most of the stuff he made excuses about it being new staff and how so many of them are quitting so he has to pretty much hire anyone, etc. I've seen new restaurants open and have well trained staff. I really didn't feel like listening to him tell me why his job was so difficult. Please, just make this situation right. Do something to make me feel like you care about our bad experience. He promised to send me certificates on Friday. (That'd be Friday, Dec 16th, folks) He didn't have much around because he had to comp so many meals lately. I told him this is fine.

Months go by. Nearly three of them. I write another note to RMG on their 'contact us' link. I tell them that they not only offered us a terrible time but they also failed to care about it. I would think the manager would have sent the certificates and then made a follow up call in a month or so to see how the second visit went. I told them I was so unhappy with the lack of care we were shown that I refused to use the $30 in bonus certificates I got when I bought gift cards. I also told them I did not want Dave to call me again. I just wanted to let them know how things are being done. The next day I got a voice mail and an email from his boss. He said "I want to apologize for your poor experience and the poor follow up by my manager. I'm very sorry about that and I want to make this right for you. I'm responsible... I need to get involved and resolve this situation. I'm also going to send you an email with contact information as well." He gives his phone number and gives more apology. Seems pretty straightforward.

Then I get a call from the manager - who I specifically asked not contact me again - stating he sent them and he's so sorry I didn't get them. He remembers the address. No kidding, dude, I gave it to you over the phone. This doesn't mean you sent certificates. I lived at that address for over eight years and we never had mail issues. I don't believe for a second he sent me anything. This guy just fails to take responsibility. This bothers me. Deeply.

So today, March 15th, I get this:

Seriously, Macaroni Grill? At least spell the name right.

I think I am going to mail this whole thing in a big envelope back to them. Because, really. Have the $30 I refused to use and take the $30 you sent as 'comps' (whatever that means?) and just keep them. Because by now, I'm not feeling the good will from your company. I do not feel like a valued customer. I can find other places to eat, tip well, and take our party of eight.

What do you think? I can't believe they did not honor my wishes about not having Dave call again. I would put all of this stuff in a trash can and burn it, while videotaping it and post it, sending a copy of it to the district manager, but I am way too lazy for that.

p.s. Don't bother stopping by, that's the old address. I gave Macaroni Grill the new one, but Dave is less than stellar and sent these to the address he originally had - three months ago.

Saturday, March 10, 2012

Even though we are still waiting on our driveway and landscaping, our house is already feeling quite homey. There are all sorts of things going on inside and lots of visitors, which I love. I don't think it looks like a monster from the street or anything, which I was a little worried about when people were saying they didn't get the bonus room because they thought it would be too much. I actually wanted this elevation because of the lines. I needed wanted the gray/black/white color combo very much. So much so that it narrowed down the stone choices for us, which was a good thing.

*If you are investing in stone, make sure you get out to houses with the stone. Don't just look at what they have in the model home to choose a stone.

I really wanted a full porch, but there was not an option for a full porch. I am hoping the HOA will approve one when/if I decide it is important to me. Right now I'm fine with the idea of using the back yard for all my outdoor sitting. We have three fields behind us - two for cattle and one for horses. I think I prefer sharing my quiet space with them over the street, even our peaceful street.

Friday, March 9, 2012

I haven't done 3 in 30 in, oh... probably about a year. I'm just going to hop back in, though, because really? What better way? We're moved into the new house now, so I have all the motivation and none of the excuses. Plus, I've been staring at "The Box" for a while now and I want to use it so I can feel like I have a system beyond trudging through every day feeling like there is too much to do.

Since I missed week one I will just jumble it all together.

1. Get the old place totally emptied and cleaned up for the new life it is about to have.

2. Get the few remaining boxes in my bedroom put away.

3. Shop for the furniture we need and the appliances (fridge, washer & dryer) which all decided to die within the two week period around our move.

I will admit this may seem to some like sort of a cheat since #1 is actually done. But had I written a post on the first of the month it certainly would have been the honest big goal. Plus, getting it done was no small task, lemme tell ya'. So checkity check check check - it's done!

I have to work on the boxes in my room. I have a tote and less than ten fairly small boxes, so if I don't manage to do it, really, one of you should just come over and flog me.

Shopping for the furniture and appliances is proving to be the worst of these tasks because I can't find the furniture I want and washer/dryer prices have about doubled since I bought some eight years ago! Also, my laundry room is on the second floor, which is really nice and all, but I can't just buy any old noisy, shaky machine like I could when these things were in the basement. Add to this the fact that we were not really prepared to replace these items right now, and it's a monumental task to find what we need.

Of course, in reality, I will be adjusting to a whole new house routine. Since the whole downstairs is hardwood I have to sweep it every day or two unless I want to see little doggie-hair tumbleweeds in the corners. (Gross! I do not want to see those in the corners or anywhere else.) Luckily, the central vac makes it ridiculously simple to do the hardwoods.

I also have a bunch of works I want to do. I want to paint a bunch of furniture. I have two new cans of Annie Sloan Chalk paint and a can of her soft wax in my sitting room, just taunting me. The basement is a mess where some of the family decided to just put stuff in willy-nilly during the second half of the move. The garage makes me want to cry, because if the basement got willy-nilly, the garage got... hmmm... there are no words. I can park the van inside. Barely. Sanford & Son would be proud. Fortunately for me, at least some of it is empty boxes I will be putting on Craigslist for someone else to use. Some of this stuff may show up in the April goals. Maybe even May. Hopefully not June. Hopefully. There is lots to do, so we'll see.

Sure, you saw the kitchen before, when it was still bare. Before we had our own personal treasures in the house. Here it is today, right after we had some eggs and bacon. They taste way better in this kitchen, too, let me tell ya'. As you can see, I haven't done anything to it yet. I'm waiting for the perfect inspiration before I do something up around the window. I'm thinking about some small rounded shelves, but I haven't visualized the 'just right' thing yet. I think I might leave the window itself bare. Or just hang a little string of hankies or something up there. I don't want anything to obstruct my light or my view.

Please ignore the fingerprints, crumbs, swiffer, or whatever else you find wrong with these pictures. I was lucky to get a couple which weren't totally blurry! I love this kitchen with it's deep sinks, awesome faucet, and all of the delightful functional little details!

Ryan Homes Ravenna Reverse Floor Plan Kitchen

p.s. If my whole house had a theme, that theme would have to be: Candy.